The Baltic Trip

Saturday, 15 September 2012

Home sweet home!

It's has been a good holiday, we have seen and learnt lots about the Baltic States, riden some excellent roads, viewed some outstanding scenery and met some interesting people along the way, but it's great to be home!

In the 18 days away, I rode 3500 miles, and the TDM performed very well throughout.

Ripped off

Got to the Euro Tunnel and got a shock when they asked for 114 Euros! Admitedly, I had no booking which in the past has cost between £13 - £45, but this was an absolute effing rip off in my opinion.

TDM on the tunnel train going back to the UK.

This is the dirtiest the bike has ever been and will no doubt take several days to get it looking good again.

Last day

Thanks to Kate & Martin at Orchard Farm for another pleasant stay.

Martin Pegler and I at Orchard Farm

So it is now the last day and I am heading for Calais via a scenic route to start with.
On the way back I went through Albert, where I took these photos of the Basilica

Friday, 14 September 2012

2 borders today

It was another great stay with Andre and Marie at the 'Bikers Only B&B' and great to meet the other bikers there. But time came to get back on the road and head to another excellent biker friendly B&B 'Orchard Farm' in Combles (northern France).

So to start the day I headed to the Rhine river and followed this for several miles before going up and down more great biking roads for most of the morning before getting on the main roads to get some of today's mileage done and to ensure getting to the B&B at a reasonable time.

I must admit, there has been such a huge amount of great motorcycling roads in Germany that I will look into spending a week discovering more of them next year and have a longer stay with Andre using that as a base.

During the day I crossed the German to Belgium border whilst on a minor road then the Belgium to France border whilst on the motorway so unfortunately was unable to stop and get a photo of this one, and speaking of photos, here is a selection of today's pictures...

Ferry crossing across the Rhine

And another border crossed!

Orchard Farm (biker friendly B&B).

Thursday, 13 September 2012

Germany

Yesterday's ride through Germany started with some great scenic routes away from a lot of traffic which meant excellent riding!
Then to make up time I done some motorway riding (and on their sections of autobahn without any speed limit, it was interesting)!
Then back to the twisties to finish the day finally arriving at the 'Biker Only B&B' in Germany.

To some of you these are just pictures of roads, to the bikers these are pictures of paradise.

There was of course many more but I was having so much fun I didn't stop to take photos so you will have to go and find them yourself!

Wednesday, 12 September 2012

From Poland to Germany

It has been quite a busy holiday with all the touristy site seeing, so Alex and I decided to skip Prague in the Czech Republic and go straight to Germany as we had done the main part of the trip, the Baltic States, and felt the best part was done, just the journey home now.
We left Warsaw at 7:30am and headed straight for the German border using mostly fast main roads and toll roads, not my favourite roads but we had lots of miles to cover. It started to rain and soon become a laborious journey. We rode through the border as there was no where to stop and take photos so we pulled in at the next fuel station to say good bye to each other as Alex was off to see his god son near Hanover in Germany for a few days and I was heading off in a differant direction for some more interesting roads and scenery!

There are not many photos of the journey because of the roads used and the appauling weather but here are a few photos of Colditz Castle that I briefly stopped by to look at late afternoon time.